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Tuesday, July 1, 2008

There is an African proverb that says, “If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” We need to go far, quickly.This is last in the series of articles about climate crisis.The first articleshould set the historical context for you to get interested in knowing about climate crisis.The second articletalks about earth's energy balance, causes and consequences of climate crisis.The third articlespeaks about the impact of scientific discoveries on political decisions and policy making with respect to climate crisis.The fourth article discuss about how the scientific results/efforts where successful in making 'climate crisis'a buzzword and also about impact of scientific studies related to climate change.The fifth article throws some light on role of world leaders and scientific community in sharing whatever little is left and the road ahead.

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"Both developed and developing countries should stop using the other’s behavior as an excuse for stalemate and instead develop an agenda for mutual survival in a shared global environment...We must understand the connections between the climate crisis and the afflictions of poverty, hunger, HIV-Aids and other pandemics. As these problems are linked, so too must be their solutions. We must begin by making the common rescue of the global environment the central organizing principle of the world community[source]."Our leaders do understand the ground reality, thanks to the timely intervention of scientific fraternity. But they are just trying to be too pragmatic when it comes to taking some actions. They respect peaceful negotiations for taking collective actions, we have seen that in Kyoto, we have seen in Vienna, Washington, recently in Bali also. Though there were some heated exchanges, these conferences, nevertheless were fruitful. Leaders need to realize the urgency and should be quick enough to take actions? What actions?

Reduce the anthropogenic green house gas emission by at least 5.2 percent below 1990 levels in the commitment period 2008-12 [voluntary commitment in Kyoto Protocol] with a shift to cleaner energies such as wind and solar powers.

Understand the fact that, wrt climate change, all countries have "common but differentiated responsibilities and relative capabilities [explanation here]." Developed countries, the so called Annex I countries, should act accordingly. United States should stop finding the hiding place behind India and China and should start taking the responsibilities.

Developed countries should assists other countries both in terms of technology and finance, as agreed in earlier negotiations.

Though there is no legal obligation to reduce the emission of green house gases, all countries must accept the emission reduction targets.

Leaders should focus on the such policies which can bring down per capita emission. It's interesting to note that, At G-8 summit held in Heiligendamm, our PM Dr. Manmohan Singh made it clear that, "India was prepared to commit that its per capita emission would not exceed the average per capita emissions of developed industrial countries [...]." Such proactive initiatives are healthy and other countries should follow the suit.

"The real challenge at the national level is to integrate the management of climate related risks into development policies and programmes. [Yojana, June 2008].

We need a package of policies from out leaders, may it be fiscal, regulatory or any other which would make a substantial difference to our dependence on imports of oil as well as on emissions of all kinds of pollutants, not just carbon dioxide, as advocated by Dr.R.K.Pachaur.

Leaders should understand the urgency of promoting the use of renewable energy resources.

And of course, you can add to this list.

"Not withstanding the skepticism over the prevailing notion of global warming, if humanity along with the other flora and fauna have to survive on this planet, all nations - developed and developing must make sincere endeavour to strike balance between the two or else we are heading for major breakdown of the ecosystem of our mother planet in the coming years.[Yojana, June 2008]" Its high time that, every country should ask not what every other country has done for the cause of climate crisis, but should ask itself what it has done (or what it has to do) for avoiding terrible consequences of climate crisis. And we all must realize the fact that, when it comes to climate crisis, whatever we do may be insignificant, but it is very important that we do it.